Nice and new sencha processing video

New forum member, Trigga, just uploaded an excellent video from a japanese tea processing facility. It shows various detailed steps of hand-made sencha processing. Now I know why sencha comes out in the fine, pine-needled shape it does!

They are making Temomi-Cha which is a traditional hand manufacturing process ... light steamed. Only a very small percentage of sencha is manufactured in Temomi-Cha fashion.

The video is interesting as it shows an old school, traditional method of making Temomi-Cha. The vast majority of Sencha is manufactured in a very high tech environment versus this very low tech though still "precise" method.

Poohblah wrote:Wow!!! That was great. I would love to try that tea. Thanks TRigga! and thanks for explaining a bit more about Temomicha, Chip.

I hope traditional arts and practices like this method of making tea never die.

Hey, glad everyone is enjoying my video. Chip is right, only a small percentage of sencha now is made by hand using the process known as 'Temomi-cha'. In the town where I stayed there was a tea union. Many members of the town grew tea and there was a large facility that provided all the equipment needed to harvest and process the tea by machine. I only took pictures of this facility because it was not in use at the time and I wasn't quite sure what most of the equipment was used for. Chip is right, the tea leaves in Temomi are lightly steamed, only for about 40 seconds. Some other main differences I discovered were that when steeped, the leaves remain whole, and open back up to their original shape and appearance. Also, the taste is far more subdued in the first brew compared to machine made sencha (my guess is due to the fact that the leaves remain whole, and therefore, don't leech into the water as easily). I felt that the second or even third steeping's tasted the overall best.

Trigga wrote:Also, the taste is far more subdued in the first brew compared to machine made sencha (my guess is due to the fact that the leaves remain whole, and therefore, don't leech into the water as easily). I felt that the second or even third steeping's tasted the overall best.

I feel that this is the case with almost any kind of whole-leaf tea of decent quality. I do think most teas require a relatively long first steep to "awaken" the leaves.

Can't quite remember. Maybe Mark's Daily Apple forum, but I could be misremembering. It was recent, but I have a way of forgetting these things.

The woodfire stove bathtub was interesting. Horribly inconvenient, but nothing in life dictates everything has to be. I wonder what the lady's thoughts were after having spent time in the US (or elsewhere in Japan) with electric / oil / gas heat stoves, and then having that.

Her reasoning is all environmental based. She try's to live as primitive a life as possible, thereby minimizing her carbon footprint. I'm not sure though if she misses the conveniences that she once had in America.

It seems wonderfully minimalistic, not to mention how beautiful it must be to watch the leaves infusing in the open like that. Looks like a very high leaf to water ratio. Is this only suitable for the highest grade tea?

It seems wonderfully minimalistic, not to mention how beautiful it must be to watch the leaves infusing in the open like that. Looks like a very high leaf to water ratio. Is this only suitable for the highest grade tea?

Great videos, Trigga! Not every Japanese would know how tea is made (whichever, hand- or machine-processed), so thanks a lot for sharing your experience with the world!

Last spring in another famous tea town - Wazuka I was among the lucky to hand-pick first flush tea leaves that were later hand-rolled, and a friend of mine, David from NMTC, made a video about it from the very beginning to the end. A great watch in case you haven't seen it yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25I81Jv1Iw